


celebrationem

by j_whirl44



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Ancient Rome setting, Gen, I! miss! Sasha! so! much!, Post-Sasha Epilogue, idk what to tag this honestly???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24263689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_whirl44/pseuds/j_whirl44
Summary: Sasha's still adjusting, but she's doing alright.
Relationships: Sasha Rackett & Happiness
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	celebrationem

Sasha walks along the camp, she’s focused on a piece of paper in her hands. Another report from one of her agents updating her on a job they were doing. A simple transport mission, nothing too crazy, but it was this group’s first solo mission, and she wanted as many check-ins as possible to make sure things were going smoothly.

She can see from the corner of her eye that she was being followed. She recognizes the kid as Mariana, a small, skinny girl who had long black hair and dark skin. She’s one of the first kids to stumble across this place, by unlucky circumstance. She was shy and Sasha could tell she didn’t like to be seen much by others, but she was smart and always in tune with her surroundings. It was a sneaky devil of a combination. She’s a bit sensitive, but that’s really no weakness in Sasha’s book.

She tries to hide her smile and focus again on the report as she hears Mariana slink in and out of the bushes. Usually being followed would put her on edge, but Sasha’s been here for almost a year now, or at least she thinks, and she’s slowly starting to feel a little more  _ at home  _ in this place.

It wasn’t easy getting to this point, though. The first weeks coming here were extremely hard. Cicero tried his best to accommodate, but there was something about him Sasha didn’t trust, so she often snuck away from this little camp. She climbed whatever building she could find nearby and just stared out at the landscape until morning. She was pissed off and upset at how things had gone. It took her maybe far too long to grieve, but she was starting to get better now.

Mariana still follows her as Sasha reaches the natural end of the path she was on.

“You can come out now there, friend,” she says.

A small gasp comes from behind her and she smiles. Mariana takes a step towards her and bows her head. That small formality still makes Sasha’s skin crawl and her cheeks flush, but no matter how many times she told the kids to stop it, they didn’t seem to listen. So she just smiles tightly through it.

“Miss Sasha. I was told to retrieve you for...for-” Mariana stutters through her words. Her eyes grow wider and wider as she tried to speak.

“It’s alright, Mariana, you’re fine don’t hurt yourself there,” Sasha says. Mariana makes her lips small and nods her head. Gods, Sasha really does see so much of herself in her. “Just...take me where you need me to go. I’ll be sure to let them know that you did a great job escorting,” she says. Mariana’s eyes light up at that and she now runs ahead of Sasha who smiles as she follows.

It was now that she noticed how quiet everything was. They weren’t nearly as many people on the training grounds as usual and the steps that lead to the bedroom quarters weren’t occupied like they often were. Sasha tenses up as she walks. Her hand itches to hover above the blade that she carries at her hip. Mariana leads her along until they both stop in front of the main building.

The way Mariana opens the front doors with such ease almost made Sasha lunge back on instinct. She was expecting... _ something  _ to happen. An ambush, expecting to see enemies lurking in the shadows and quickly jumping in front of them with weapons in hand. She now held her own blade.

Mariana looks back at her, eyes shyly gazing at the small weapon Sasha held. Her eyes went a little wide, highlighting how young she really is. She walked towards Sasha now and wrapped a small hand around her wrist. Sasha lowered it on instinct and put the blade away, back safely resting on her hip.

“It’s okay, Miss Sasha,” Mariana begins to stutter, “we just wanted to do something for you!” her eyes start to tear up, she bits her lips, “I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to-” she says, before she starts all out crying.

Sasha quickly embraces the child. It’s still awkward for her, to show affection, but she’s trying.

The kids need it. She needs it.

Mariana clings to her and mumbles more apologies. “Oi, hey. It’s okay, Mariana, you’re, uh, doing great. I promise. Just calm down alright? I’ll follow you okay?” Sasha says.

Mariana sniffles and nods. They enter the building. Sasha does here movement coming from the shadows, but she recognizes the sound now. It’s the sound of children, rushing to hide, laughing in excitement. Sasha slowly releases the tension in her shoulders and hides the smile on her face.

They walk into the kitchen that’s just off to the right side of the entryway and she  _ is  _ ambushed. By the screams of children as they leap out from various parts of the room. Each with a mischievous smile on their face and bright eyes.

There’s a surprisingly large spread of food on the table. Honey covered breads, various fruits, both in juice form and whole. Jugs of milk Sasha hasn't seen this much objectivity decadent food since...since that impromptu restaurant adventure with Hamid that had her full for days. Her stomach squeezes slightly at the memory.

Once the initial excitement wears off, one of the boys looks at Mariana and twists his face, “Aw man. Mariana told! She ruined the surprise!” he says.

Sasha steps in quickly, “She didn’t! She, uh, did a...fine job getting me here. I had-I had no idea this was happening! What, uh, what is happening here exactly?”

It’s then she hears a laugh from behind her. It’s Cicero and a few other men from his posse that have helped build this place into what it is, whatever that is. Who’s asking anyway.

“This was the children’s idea it seems. They wanted to celebrate the anniversary,” he says.

Sasha turns back to the children. There’s six of them in total. She recognizes now that all of them came here around the same time. It wasn’t long after she and Cicero found this place themselves. That was so long ago now, it seems.

It starts to dawn on her, but she’s hesitant. Unsure what to do.

“It’s been a whole year since we’ve came here,” one of the children, Ava, says, “or at least  _ I think _ it has,” she adds, she thinks for a moment and then shakes her head, “anyways, we just wanted to thank you somehow. And-”

“And we know you like food, I mean who doesn’t like food!” another child, Cassius interrupts, “so we thought this would be nice to...to do, this,” his confidence wavers at the end.

Sasha chuckles at that and Cicero joins in. He steps further into the room, making a beeline towards the grapes. He pops some in his mouth.

“Well I for one can’t argue with that,  _ I love food _ ” he says, he starts to cut into the bread, the kids protest a bit, he ignores them. “But know this my children, you don’t need a reason to celebrate life,” he says. He now pours himself a glass of juice and looks to Sasha, he raises the cup towards her in acknowledgement, “but, my pupils, there  _ is _ something to celebrate today, and that’s what you’ve accomplished since coming here,” he’s fully looking at Sasha now, “you should be proud.”

The children cheer and woo in response as they all begin to gather around the table to dig into the food that Sasha still isn’t one hundred percent sure how they even got a hold of, but she stays back a moment to think on Cicero’s words.

It’s a weird feeling. She is...proud. Of herself. Of the kids. Of what she's seems to have made here so far. Since being separated from Hamid. From Azu. Since Grizzop...since leaving the tunnels with Cicero. 

People trust her.  _ Genuinely _ trust her. They want her input on stuff. She’s a leader. She sometimes wishes that Barett and Eldarion could just see her now and wonders what they would think. If they’d try and take credit. They probably would.

But Sasha won’t let them.

She’s still lost in thought when Mariana comes over and tugs her to join the rest of the party. Sasha obliges. She takes in the sweet bread and thinks of how much Hamid would enjoy it. She smiles.

They’d be proud of her, Zolf, Hamid, Azu, Grizzop, they  _ really _ would.

Sasha knows that.

**Author's Note:**

> this started as "Sasha probably never properly celebrated her birthday huh :/" and turned into...this.
> 
> I miss her...........so much.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed :D


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